Liberty Pulls Away from Ball State for a 51-15 Win
Ball State led for 2 minutes and 1 second. That was the whole contest. TJ Horton's 2-yard run at 5:47 of the first quarter made it 7-6, and Liberty answered at 3:46 with Deshawn Purdie's 16-yard touchdown pass to Jamari Person. Liberty never gave the lead back and won 51-15.
Liberty's own extra-point miss on its first touchdown (the Makai Jackson 12-yard catch, 6-0) is why Ball State got to lead at all. After that it was all Liberty. A Chase Reeves 46-yard field goal made it 16-7, and Purdie hit Person again from 7 yards with 0:13 left in the half for a 23-7 lead at the break. Ethan Vasko ran in from 4 yards and Kam Davis from 14 in the third quarter, and Liberty led 37-7.
Ball State got one more score. Horton ran in from a yard out and Keldric Luster took the two-point try in, which made it 37-15 with 2:42 left in the third. Then Jaylen Henderson threw a 21-yard touchdown to Terron Kellman, and Jaylin Belford ran in from a yard out with 5:02 to go to close the scoring at 51-15.
The yardage shows how lopsided it was. Liberty finished with 465 total yards (248 passing, 217 rushing) and Ball State had 263, with just 93 through the air. Neither team threw an interception, and each lost a fumble. Liberty is 2-1, Ball State is 1-2.
For fantasy, Purdie was the story: 13 of 20, three touchdowns and 29.3 points. Horton still made the list with two rushing scores for Ball State, even on the losing side.